NEW GRADUATE ASSISTANTS:  Recently the archives welcomed two new graduate assistants for the new fiscal year, Donna Baldwin and Janine Hunter.  They both will be starting to pursue their master's degrees in public history at Middle Tennessee State University this fall and they are excited about working at the archives.

NEW ALL-NAME EXTRACTS INDEX:  Recently Don Detwiler, a volunteer at the archives, created an index of names extracted from record book 8 that contains wills, probate information and inventories of estates from the years 1829-1832.  This guide is very useful for researchers who want to find other family members included in the records.  Currently Don is working on extracting names from record book 9.

CONSERVATION OF RECORDS:  In an on-going effort to preserve and protect the records in the archives, graduate students and volunteers continue to do some conservation for some of the items in the archives.  Projects include copying records on acid-free paper to preserve the original copies such as copying record book 27 that contains wills, probate information and inventories of estates from the 19th century.  In addition, the staff is continuing to re-folder loose court records in acid-free folders and transcribe some of the fragile documents housed at the archives.

NEW ACQUISITIONS:  In September the archives accepted a group of original wills dating from 1804-1899.  These are being re-foldered, cleaned, and indexed.  Some of the wills that are in more fragile condition or badly faded will be encapsulated or transcribed.  The archives staff is also pleased to begin the preservation of the county marriage records.  The first group of records dating from 1804-1824 is currently being restored by volunteer Don Detwiler.  This long process includes re-hydrating, cleaning, encapsulating and indexing.

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